Jim & Barry's World Travels: Bundesliga Soccer!

Saturday was one of the most anticipated days of the trip. We took a group of students to the final match of the year for the Bundesliga teams 1899 Hoffenheim and Schalke 04. I got up just a few minutes early for my only chance to check out the hotel's salt water pools, even though I'd had a late night at the festival. Again, I found a uniquely German culture surrounding the pools. The area had two indoor pools, one of which was essentially a giant swirling aerated whirlpool bath with built in lounge chairs. There was also an outdoor pool with a bench overlooking the hills on the opposite side of the river. There was a juice bar, and the pool clientele appeared to be mostly old people socializing as they soaked. No lap swimmers here! Except maybe outside.

Headed to the Bundesliga match!

Couldn't enjoy that scene for too long, because we had to walk to the train station to take a three-leg trip to the town of Sensheim which is oddly (but for known reasons) the home of a top tier soccer team and 30 thousand seat stadium. The train ride was fairly uneventful, and as we went along there gradually came to be more and more of the opposing team's fans getting on the train. Any time we questioned when to get on or off a train, we just followed the Schalke jerseys.

I wasn't sure what we would find when we arrived at the stadium site, but the exit from the platform led to a bustling street with some businesses, a souvie stand, a bratwurst place with a beer garden, a döner stand, and a Burger King. The BK has quite handy due to the availability of free public restrooms. Clark and I ate at the döner stand with a few students, then I got a Spaghetti-Eis from a street vendor before re-connecting with the other students to walk to Rhine-Neckar Arena. (It's ice cream made to look like a bowl of spaghetti, BTW.)

Dӧner stand in Sensheim.

Dӧner Box for lunch.

The walk to the arena went through a very odd-looking Auto and Technik Museum featuring, among other things, used concord aircrafts mounted as if they are taking off. Just past the museum, we passed under a big highway through a graffiti-covered tunnel (very German). On the other side of the tunnel, we entered into a countryside of rolling green field with a huge stadium sitting a few hundred yards away. Immediately upon exiting the tunnel, we could hear the thunderous chants of the fans coming from inside the stadium.

Due to a student issue, a few guys and I were arriving a bit later than anticipated, and it didn't help that I couldn't read the sign correctly and led us all to the wrong gate. We were turned away and directed to the right gate, entering the stands just as a bunch of flags were being taken off the field and the game began. Things continued to go wrong, as I didn't know that the seat numbers start in the middle of the stands. There I was like a pied piper leading three students up and down the aisles, interrupting fans and looking for seats 1-4. We missed the first goal by Schalke before finding our seats in the dead center of the row.

Finally we were in our seats and watched the game. It was quite cool, but the sun actually came out which I thought made the game pleasant, even though we were seated in covered stands. Schalke scored again in the first half, which was a fun goal to watch. But Hoffenheim scored and showed some life for the rest of the half and much of the second half. We saw some good soccer. Hoffenheim had a lot more opportunities than Schalke from corner kicks, but they didn't convert any. After the world's most boring halftime, play resumed. I loved the constant, rhythmic chanting of the fans, which alternated between the opposing sides, along with people in the stands dancing and waving flags (although not near us). It was almost soothing. I hoped Hoffenheim would tie it up, but near the end Schalke scored again, and the Hoffenheim sealed their own fate by scoring an own goal. Final result was 1-4. The loss wasn't unexpected, but it didn't have to be that bad.

Halftime at the match.

After the game we went out near the concession area to collect the group, and one of our students noticed that they were giving the beer away for free. Yes please! We thought it was completely un-American, but I guess the Germans don't want to waste beer. And, we guessed, fewer people drive home from the stadium. Although we benefited from free beer, our waiting was in vain because some of the students had already walked back to the train platform. Eventually we all found each other and managed to get on the correct train back.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, everything on the ride back was uneventful until we got to Heilbronn, where we had to change trains. I'll explain here in greater detail: We had about 10 minutes, so some of the students ducked into the convenience store in the train station. I swept them all out so they could get on the train, and we managed to confirm it was the right train and hurry on just as the doors were closing. That's when Clark told me that we were still missing two students who went to Subway. I quickly jumped back off, walked into the station and found the students coming toward me just as the train pulled away. They were shocked. They apologized profusely and blamed a slow Subway worker.

I knew they felt terrible, so I accepted their apology, didn't make a big deal out of it, and quickly went about trying to come up with an alternate plan. We looked at the schedules posted on the wall, which might as well have been printed in German(!) and were of no help at all. I pulled up Google Maps, and my heart sank when the only train itineraries it came up with would put us back in Schwäbisch Hall at 7:30 am the next day, an hour and a half after our bus was set to leave. Suddenly, the railworker appeared at my side, looking at me incredulously because he had been urging ne to get on the train. In the end, he was super helpful. He helped us buy tickets for an alternate route that put us back in Schwäbisch Hall by 10:30 pm.

Outside the Heilbronn train station.

We went to the Subway so the guys could sit and eat their sandwiches. They were still shocked and embarrassed and ate in near silence. Eventually one of them suggested I could eat supper and, since we had an hour to wait, I went to get a sandwich. I experienced first-hand the frustratingly slow sandwich artist! He did three or four orders at a time before completing a single sandwich. Ugh!

Before long we were back on a train and the rest of the trip was uneventful, but it proved to be a good bonding time.

When we got back, they went straight back to the hotel while I went to see if I could find Jeanette at the final night of the Festival. No luck there, but I enjoyed some käsespätzle from a food vendor (traditional cheesy Schwäbian noodles), ran into Tom Gunst, saw the procession of the salzherstellers (even larger than the night before), walked around the carnival ride area (which they don't call carnival rides), watched an animated marionette play which was completely in German, and walked a good way past the festival along the river on the path through the park. It was way too late to be out, but it was my last chance to take in Schwäbisch Hall.